Shippers Decry Re-Emergence Of Banned Agencies At Ports

The Shippers Association of Lagos State yesterday raised the alarm over the re-emergence of some banned government agencies at the ports.

These agencies were ejected from the ports in 2011.

Mr Jonathan Nicol, the General Secretary of the association, told newsmen the re-emergence of the agencies was making clearance of goods difficult and expensive.

According to him, some of the agencies are asking for import permit, fumigation certificates of goods packed on pallets and other irrelevant documents.

“It is against international standards to ask for such documents because the pallets have been treated from the country of origin.

“It is the shipping companies that perform the loading in the country of origin and packing goods on pallets is a common trade facility,” he said.

Nicol alleged that some agencies often went outside their mandate by asking importers to produce import licence of goods.

He also alleged that the Nigeria Customs Service had too many officers at the Lagos ports, stressing that only the resident customs officers were permitted to carry out cargo examination.

“Apart from the resident customs officers, you see other customs officers intercepting goods that have been examined and released,’’ he said.

Nicol urged the government to stop the trend to prevent service delivery from slipping to pre-2011 era when clearance of goods was difficult.

The Federal Government had in 2011 ejected some of its agencies from the ports.

The affected agencies are the State Security Service, Defense Naval Intelligence, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control and Standards Organisation of Nigeria.

Those left to operate at the ports are the Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Immigration Service and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.

Others are the Port Police, the Port Health Service and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency.